Traditionally, the passenger compartment of a golf car includes a floor mat designed to provide a comfortable non-skid surface of the floor for occupants wearing hard spiked golf shoes (steel, ceramic, etc.). Typical designs include a moderately hard rubber compound with a rough surface texture similar to indoor/outdoor carpeting. The majority of the non-skid function results from the hard spikes of the golf shoes embedding into the mat material. Thus, the properties of the material are focused on wear resistance to provide adequate service life of the mat. The surface texture of traditional mats must remain shallow to preclude a tripping hazard with aggressive hard spikes. The shallow surface texture also limits the entrapment of dirt in the mat surface, facilitating easy cleaning.
In recent years, there has been a dramatic shift from hard spiked golf shoes to shoes incorporating soft spikes. Soft spikes are typically made from a plastic compound, are significantly more pliable and less abusive than hard spikes. The benefit of soft spikes to a course operator is reduced damage to both the playing surface, putting greens in particular, and the course facilities, floors, steps, sidewalks and the like. The benefits of soft spikes to the golfer include comfortable walking and more consistent putting as a result of the reduced damage to the putting greens.
The shift to using soft spiked golf shoes has created a heightened need for the floor mat of the golf car to provide an improved non-skid surface. Additionally, the plastics from which the soft spikes are molded, are typically slippery when contacting the floor mat material, especially when wet. Further, hard spikes and soft spikes are used contemporaneously, as not all players have switched to soft spikes. Thus, the floor mat must provide additional non-skid capability for soft spikes, without being overly aggressive for hard spikes, while still providing adequate service life and cleaning characteristics.